A Republican gay-rights group presented Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) with a leadership award Wednesday night despite his vote against a repeal of the ban on allowing openly gay people to serve in the military nearly 24 hours before the event. …Neither Cornyn nor Sessions appeared in person to accept their awards.

Cornyn did appear and speak at a pre-dinner reception, which was attended by only 60 people and closed to the press. I don’t know whether he was given his trophy at that time when nobody from the press was there to see it, but we hear that all the gays sang a lovely round of “Happy Birthday” for Mrs Cornyn. That moment of festivity occurred just one day after Sen. Cornyn voted to continue to keep LGBT people from serving in the military. After about 45 minutes, he then ducked out without commenting to the press.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)

The leadership awards that LCR gave to Sessions and Cornyn are named for Barry Goldwater, who had no problem speaking his mind in support of gay rights. This action is a blight upon his good name, especially considering that Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) was sitting right there at that very dinner. She was a founding member and remains the only Republican member of the LGBT Equality Caucus, where she serves as a vice-chair. She cosponsored the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act; she was the lead cosponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act; she is a sponsor of the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act; she actively supports repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and she voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment. Plus, she didn’t use the Republican Caucus meeting as an excuse to skip the dinner despite being the senior Republican woman in the caucus. She was honored with the Spirit of Lincoln Award, but if anyone deserves a leadership award named for Barry Goldwater, it’s her. Not the cowards who couldn’t be seen accepting it six weeks before the election.

Update: Chris Johnson at the Washington Blade caught up with Rep. Ros-Lehtinen after the LCR dinner:

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) told the Blade following her remarks at the National Log Cabin Republicans annual dinner in D.C. that she doesn’t know what will happen with pro-LGBT legislation as she took a dig at the current Democratic majority for not moving forward.

“I don’t know what will happen with Republicans,” she said. “I know what’s happening now. I don’t really get an opportunity to get to vote on those [bills] very often on the floor.”

Asked whether she thinks pro-LGBT legislation would advance in a Republican-controlled House, Ros-Lehtinen replied, “The Democrats are in control. I don’t know that they’ve gone forward. … I guess you should ask [U.S. House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi why they haven’t gone forward.”

Republicans are expected to gain control of the House in this year’s mid-term elections.

I don’t say that the LCR should have a 100% purity test, but giving awards to prople who have done diddly squat for gay rights like Mr. Sessions and Mr. Cornyn is an abomination. And these “gentlemen” showed exactly what they thought of their awards by their non-appearance.

And how come Rep. Ron Paul did not get some recognition? He did vote against DADT and has opposed the Federal Marriage Amendment.

Cornyn did not “miss” the dinner. He was never scheduled to be at the dinner, only at the fundraiser cocktail reception. He DID show up exactly where he said he would show up.

As for the award, I see it as “show up to my fundraiser and I’ll give you a plaque.”

As for those of you hating on LCR… yeah, that can be fun. But who else is going to even get Cornyn into the same room with gay people or to even consider the idea that we can be something other than “radical militant leftists”? Sure they make compromises that you might not make, but sometimes those compromises turn into small steps in our direction.

I don’t mind that LCR exists, and to the extent they work to elect Republicans who are somewhat better on gay issues, or work to convince Republicans in office to change their views, that’s great. But giving an award to a man who has never taken one step to support equality, and has taken many steps to oppose equality, is just moronic. And it’s equally moronic when they (or GOProud, which is even worse about this) endorse an anti-gay candidate. They don’t have to endorse the Democrat, but their endorsement gives people who might actually care about gay issues an excuse to vote for people who hate us.

â€œI donâ€™t know what will happen with Republicans,â€ I was halfway towards respecting the House Republican until she flat-out lied.

“Cornyn did not â€œmissâ€ the dinner. He was never scheduled to be at the dinner, only at the fundraiser cocktail reception.”

Tim, don’t you think he was invited to the dinner, also? He probably hasn’t scheduled because he said he wouldn’t go. Seems like a pretty logical assumption. It’s also pretty astonishing that you would defend the man that you’ve named your own website after.

” Sure they make compromises that you might not make, but sometimes those compromises turn into small steps in our direction.”

Barack Obama wasn’t given an award. I don’t think it’s at all unreasonable to assume that Cornyn and Sessions were both asked to come to the dinner and they declined. That means they missed the dinner. No, they didn’t flake, but they clearly had no desire to attend.

But Rep. Ros-Lehtinen did not get the same plaque despite doing so much more.

What does bringing Cornyn to bleat about partisanship accomplish when he’s still voting against gay rights?

His stance will just stay “Eh, I disagree with you guys, but you’re all not that bad since you support my party.”

Is that really something to be glad over? Because by that point LCR should simply come out and say that when it comes to priority, partisan cache is more important than the interests of the gay community.

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